Automotive SEO can be perplexing for many and there are many conflicting opinions on what are the most important aspects.  Some weight links as the most important aspect and other claim content is what wins at the end of the day.  Very rarely is site structure discussed and that may be because no one is really doing that well other than on site link optimization.

While many claim that indexed inventory brings in traffic on long tail searches and it does and will if the site is optimized properly.  Just having individual inventory items showing in the index really means nothing if search engine user cannot find it.  What matters more than anything is its actual position in the search engine results pages.  Having it indexed is one thing, where it shows on an actual consumer search query is another.

How can the long tail benefit in Automotive SEO?

I pulled traffic stats for one of my lead gen sites that has had traffic delivered on 31,222 keywords for 137,194 visitors via the search engines last month.

The top 10 keywords combined only delivered 1257 visitors around .9 of 1% of the traffic so it would be safe to say if I completely lost rankings for my top ten search terms the site would still perform well as far as search engine traffic goes.  The long tail is the biggest winner.

Here are the traffic stats for December 2008 for www.ismintraining.com with out the keywords obscured:

While search engine traffic accounts for less than 46% of the traffic here, which is more typical of a car dealers website, it still shows that the top search terms have less value than the combination of the aggregate of the long tail.  The reason the site here receives traffic on so many different terms is the type of targeted content specific to automotive SEO and other topics.

For a dealers site to pull in these long tail type searches it would require that the site have regularly updated content and not just be an online catalog of inventory.  Other types of content could be added beyond marketing pitches that others would link to freely with out sending out link request which would increase your sites overall value in the eyes of the search engines.  While at the same time your inventory can rise to the top in the search engines if the sites architecture is set up properly so every incoming link permeates throughout the site without bleeding page rank internally and redirecting traffic properly if the car is sold.

The days of having a static website maintain relevance in the search engines are fading fast unless you are targeting non competitive search engine terms, which most localized automotive search terms and limited time promotions are.  With properly optimized content dealers can pull in traffic from competitive markets and brands, however with the changes in the works for Google.com you better make sure you are delivering content that is highly relevant to to what the search engine users are looking for or you may never show up for that consumers search again.

The site here will be going through a redesign shortly to provide more value to the online automotive community with me providing more online marketing content and a new contributors providing content as it relates to people on the ground in the trenches.  If you would like to be a contributor or advertiser please contact me some big things are in store here.  Make sure you subscribe so you can stay upto date on Automotive SEO and other online automotive marketing tips.

Subscribe to My Feed

Technorati Tags: automotive seo, long tail seo, search engine optimization